Chapter 5

Occupations of the Next Life

WHEN you pass to the next life, as you surely will at the appointed time, it will be greatly to your advantage to have a clear conception of what is there required to enable you to lead a successful and happy existence. With such information arranged in orderly fashion in your mind before the day of passing, you will not go about, for some time, in the next state in a muddled condition. A certain amount of preliminary education is necessary before you can take up active duties in a world which, while in so many respects resembling the physical, due to its high velocities possesses a different order of time and is unaffected by gravitation, in which distances are measured by vibratory frequency, where thought is a chief source of power, and where money has no value. And it facilitates adjustment to that world if that preliminary education is acquired before leaving the physical realm.

Although you will find people, and houses, and trees, and animals much the same in that afterworld as you find them here; you will find many customs that are distinctly different. And you should be informed about these customs, so that you will not make things difficult for yourself by disregarding them.

Currency in the Next Life

The first of these customs I should discuss, because life on earth as now lived is so inseparably bound up with it, is the use of money. There are regions, to be sure, in the after life, where money exists. But not in the realms where you will desire to go. It exists only in those lower realms where the miserly and greedy gravitate, and even there it possesses no real value. On the contrary, it merely binds these poor souls, who are dominated by the image of it, to those dull and dreary nether worlds. So long as they are unable to perceive the value of motives other than profit, they are chained by their own desires to this astral gold. They fight and scramble and struggle among themselves, in what might be termed financial hells, for possessions that have no real purchasing power whatever.

Therefore, one of the first things to realize about the after life is that money has no power to buy anything there, and the next thing of importance is to realize that any action prompted solely by a selfish motive is not rewarded by real gain. Because the profit motive is so customary in the transactions of life on earth, it may be a little difficult to realize that the interchanges of the next life, except in the lower regions where the grossly selfish move, are entirely separated from this motive of profit and personal gain.

People are just as ambitious after they pass to the new existence as they were while on earth, but that ambition, except in the darker spheres, is not to gain something at the expense of another. They still desire to “be somebody,” still desire, and quite as strongly, to do something worthwhile. Noteworthy performance is not, by any manner of means, frowned upon. But the only kind of performance that gains honor is doing something that benefits, in some real manner, someone else. There is only one kind of currency that is good in the next life, and that is the currency of constructive service.

In this, also, the conditions differ from those that obtain in earth life; because, due to transparency of motives and visibility of thoughts, people are not evaluated falsely. On earth, to be sure, an individual while working for a secret selfish motive, can hoodwink the public into the belief he is a great and public-minded man. But not so over there. Every motive is in plain view of everyone who contacts him; and his mental and spiritual development are apparent in the plane he occupies, in his countenance, and in the structure of his form. Both what he is and what he has done go with him as a part of himself for all who desire to do so to read.

Yet because money has no value it should not be supposed that all one needs to do is merely to wish for something and, presto, it happens. On the contrary, the truly desirable things of the next life must be paid for quite as dearly as the things men most desire must be paid for dearly in this one. The difference is not that there is no payment; but that the currency is different. The only currency that will purchase you anything wanted in the after life, so far as I have been able to ascertain, is the currency of constructive service.

Such a statement sounds like an abstraction, but in reality it is very concrete. The things you will desire most in the next life, just as most of the things of this life, must come to you through the aid of others. Over here, the farmer raises what you eat, the textile industry furnishes you with clothes, the building trades erect your house and office, the electrician brings you light, and someone else affords you fuel. But you do not get these things merely by asking for them. You are required to pay.

And there are a multitude of services that may be performed for your benefit on the other side by people. Not furnishing material food, fuel, or clothing, of course, but other services that are quite as essential for your higher welfare, that correspond to these material functions. But these functions are not rendered unless you pay for them. And to get them you must pay in terms of constructive service to others.

It is not that people over there are unwilling to render you a service without compensating pay; it is because you are unable to receive it. The individual who renders the service receives nothing and wants nothing from you. He is glad to render you all the assistance you are capable of receiving. But unless through your own efforts you try to be of assistance to others you have not opened the channel to receiving help.

So long as you are self-centered, you radiate no light that attracts those more advanced, and you effectually encase yourself against their help. They cannot reach you. But when you do something that is an aid to someone else, and do it without thought of recompense, you radiate a different vibration. And to the extent that you show the ability and desire to use whatever you receive for the good of others less fortunate, those who can aid you will feel attracted to you, and strengthened in their desire to give you help.

Attracting Assistance

This currency of constructive service obtains also with those yet in the flesh, in so far as help and assistance from the inner plane are concerned. Higher intelligences from the inner plane are attracted by the use of ability for the common good. But even though attracted by zealous service rendered others, they are powerless, on any plane, to impart knowledge and instructions above the capacity of the person to receive.

Yet you may be sure that whosoever, even on the earth, uses whatever powers are within his command for the benefit of his fellow man, attracts helpful intelligences from the inner plane. And he will be given, by them, whatever assistance, little or much, he is capable of receiving and assimilating. These helpful ones from the other side often are not able to change some grossly erroneous notion, because such ideas become too strongly entrenched to be displaced by any subtle impression wafted from the inner plane. But they will send the individual such help as he can receive; as is well illustrated in the lives of a great many ardent humanitarians who have accomplished wonders in the face of seemingly insuperable obstacles.

Bearing this in mind, that the only currency that will get you anything after you pass from the physical life is constructive service, when you reach that after land, instead of expecting to be babied, pampered, and taken care of forever, you will, as soon as somewhat adjusted, set out to see what you can do that will benefit others.

And just to get into the right habit, it might be well to do a little practicing beforehand. You cannot, of course, renounce the money of the physical plane while you are still in physical life. But you can do a little something for somebody every day without considering what you are paid for it.

So essential do we consider this habit to all who seek spiritual progress that we made it obligatory on those who join The Church of Light that they take a pledge to devote some time and energy to the assistance of others without thought of recompense. Thus if they are true to their pledge they accustom themselves, before passing, to the use of the only currency that is legal tender in the land where they shall next reside.

Something for Nothing

One of the things of which you should permanently disabuse your mind is the desire to receive something for nothing, or that, on the next plane you will get something worthwhile without effort. Effort is the mainspring of individual existence and the power behind all progression. Life does not come to a standstill so soon as it passes to the next plane. It moves on, and the amount of this movement is in proportion to intelligently directed effort

Either on the physical plane or on the inner plane, life is like a bank. If we accept the loan of opportunities to develop spirituality, we are expected to pay back that loan by using the spirituality developed for the advancement of all. And whatever talents we have, as indicated by our charts of birth, we are not supposed to permit them to lie idle, but to put them to use in such a manner that not only ourselves, but others, will be benefited.

I know, to be sure, that the very idea of work is obnoxious to many. They are “fed up” with it here, and desire to go some place where there is nothing to do but rest. Yet these very overworked individuals when they are given a forced vacation find doing nothing, after a time, worse than doing disagreeable work. Soon they find idleness intolerable, and become active in seeking pleasures, in sport, in travel, or in something that appeals to their fancy. Their distaste for work was really a distaste for some particular kind of work, or with too much activity. They imagined they wished to do nothing, when in reality their desire was to cease doing the things they were compelled to do, that they might do the things they desired to do.

The climate endured by a considerable of the population of India is such as to make physical activity a great strain on their vital forces. Such activity, therefore, in certain regions is greatly loathed. And from this loathing of effort, due to temperament and climate, has arisen, I believe, that particular conception of Nirvana that regards it as a state either of complete rest, or as annihilation. To an ill-nourished people, in a terrifically hot and humid climate, nothing seems more inviting than just to be able to rest forever.

But even these people, when once their vitality has been recuperated, would find the lack of something to do boring. Activity is life, and lack of it is death, to any organism on any plane. And activity is only disagreeable on any plane when we are compelled to do something contrary to our desires, or in excess of our easily available strength. Except for the purpose of recuperating his energies, no one finds any real joy in doing nothing. The only pleasure to be had from lack of activity comes from the feeling of recapturing energy for new activity. In this life our pleasures come from amusement, from sport, from certain types of achievement, all of which imply considerable mental, emotional or physical activity. The joys on any plane arise from activities.

Talents Must Be Used to Avoid Atrophy

We find little inherent joy, however, in performing functions on any plane for which we are ill fitted. People are temperamentally adapted to certain pursuits. Their experiences in lower life forms before human birth, as well as their experiences after birth into human form, give them certain abilities which they find joy in exercising, and also lack of ability in certain other lines which make these lines distasteful.

It is possible, of course, to cultivate a liking for anything that life demands us to do, whether we have ability for it or not. And the incidental circumstances sometimes cultivate a repugnance for something we have natural ability to do. That is, artificial associations cause us to become conditioned toward some activity in a way diametrically opposite to the tendency that otherwise would have developed. These, however, are mere artificially created exceptions to the rule that we like to do what we can do best.

Back of this ability is the cosmic need for it. Each soul starts its cyclic journey to develop the ability to perform a specific function in the cosmic scheme of things. Its experiences, which are different from the experiences of any other soul, and may be quite unlike the experiences of most other souls, are all undergone to give it the education and ability ultimately to perform this work. And, because of this, when a soul is performing its proper function in the cosmic scheme, is doing the kind of work it is best fitted for and most likes to do, it experiences a joy and happiness in this work that can be obtained in no other way.

As a small boy whenever I heard the sermon based on the 25th chapter of Matthew, I reflected that the master in the parable of the talents was an unreasonably harsh fellow. The story goes, as you will recollect, that this master traveled to a far country, and on leaving delivered to his servants his goods, each according to his ability. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to the third but one talent. The fellow who had been given five talents went into business and made five more. The two-talent man likewise doubled his money. But the poor one-talent man merely hid what had been given him.

When the master returned for a reckoning, because they had used their talents for the master’s benefit, the five-talent man and the two-talent man were highly commended. But when the one-talent man revealed that he had let this talent lie idle, it was taken from him and given to the servant who had already acquired five additional talents. To me that seemed harsh enough; but in addition his master had the unused-talent man cast into outer darkness.

Later in life, when I became a naturalist, I found this parable verified by Nature. A talent or organ not used is taken away. It atrophies. Fish living in Mammoth Cave where they cannot use their eyes, have lost their sight. Whales and porpoises through being constantly in the water have lost such legs as once enabled their ancestors to walk about the land. And man has lost many an organ which still is discernible as a vestigial structure, the most troublesome one being the vermiform appendix, the rudiments of an extra chamber to the stomach which enabled his nonhuman forebears to digest cellulose.

In these losses of talents through disuse there is no hint of being cast into outer darkness; but in parasites, both vegetable and animal, there is; for the loss of functions through disuse is commonly so great that when their host dies, or gets rid of them, they are quite unable to provide for themselves and perish.

Now it is true, as in the parable, that each person is given custody of something. It is also true that talents are not equally distributed. The birth chart of this life or of the next life of one person may indicate he was born with five talents, or as we commonly call them, natural aptitudes. The birth chart of another may show he was born with two talents. And the birth chart of a third may reveal he has but one outstanding talent. Everyone, however, has at least one natural aptitude, in the use of which he can accomplish more than in trying to employ others which he does not possess.

Divine Providence, the master of the parable, does not demand that the man possessing only one natural aptitude should employ five in contributing to universal welfare. Divine Providence requires only that the individual should use such aptitudes as he has. But should he fail to use these, whether they be one, two, or five, they will be taken away, they will atrophy; and because the individual thus fails to meet the demands of Nature, fails to evolve and develop according to the Progressive Plan, he is left behind. In a progressing cosmos which depends for its advancement on the contributions made by its specializing parts, whether on the outer plane or the inner plane the lot of the parasite is hard.

The talents which the individual is given by Nature are the result of the soul’s experiences. These experiences are of ten different types, each associated with one of the twelve departments of life. The intensity and volume of a given type of experience is mapped by the prominence of its corresponding planet in the chart of birth. The department of life with which it is associated is mapped by the houses ruled by this planet in the chart of birth. And the harmony or discord of the given type of experience is mapped by this planet’s aspects. Thus does the chart of birth into this life or into the next life correctly map the talents with which a person there is born.

The thought cells built by prehuman experiences are correctly mapped by the birth chart of the human form on earth, and these determine whether the individual is a five-talent, a two-talent or a one-talent person. The experiences thus indicated were of the Mars type, the Saturn type, or of some other planetary type, and they were brought together in certain intensities of harmony or discord, and relate to definite departments of life. But they have not been human experiences. They have not been experiences in bookkeeping, in financing, in trading, in conventional relations, in driving automobiles, in cooking, in studying books, in writing, lecturing or science.

To be of value in human life, these natural aptitudes, like the talents of the parable, must be given specialized activity. The Mars experiences may have been such that given a proper human environment they are easily developed into mechanical ability, or ability as a surgeon or a soldier. The Saturn experiences may be such that given a proper human environment, they readily give aptitude in organizing and buying. The Jupiter experiences may have been such that given a proper human environment they develop salesmanship ability. But until they are thus conditioned by exercise amid an appropriate environment they remain like the talent hidden away; not abilities ready for exercise, but merely natural aptitudes.

In like manner, all experiences up to the time of making the transition to the next life, including those of using specialized abilities on earth, afford the natural aptitudes with which people are born on the inner plane. But before they are of real value on this inner plane, they usually must be adapted to inner-plane existence through developing them for the specialized activities which there are in demand.

In prehuman life forms the soul has had experiences in caring for the young, and the Domestic thought cells thus organized provide one of the natural aptitudes required in human life to become a successful store clerk. In like manner experience as a store clerk in human life provides the still more complex organization of the Domestic thought cells which gives the natural aptitude for a valuable function in the inner-plane life. But store clerks do not function as store clerks in the next life, no more than the plants and birds which in the care of their young on earth so strongly exhibit the thought-cell activity mapped by the Moon, when human life is reached depend on the whims of the wind to carry their offspring to a proper environment, or feed them with insects. It is not feasible to explain the details of functions exercised in the high-velocity region of the inner plane, because certain properties of existence there are so at variance with those on the outer plane. But we can speak of the work done there in terms of those physical activities which provide the aptitudes for similar inner-plane jobs.

And in doing so we can draw still another important inference from the parable of the talents. For whether in outer-plane life or inner-plane life, we may assume that had the servants increased their talents as two of them did, but used the gain merely for brutal and selfish purposes such as materialism encourages, that the master would not have been pleased. Natural abilities, which the birth chart maps, not only should be developed to do such work as they best fit the individual to perform, but they should be used in such a manner that they benefit both the individual and the society of which he forms a part. For the true measure of a life is how much it contributes to universal welfare.

Next Life Economic System

One of the points in the Nine Point Plan for the New Civilization sponsored by The Church of Light is that men should have Freedom of Expression. This does not mean merely freedom to express honest convictions, but also that they should be given opportunity to develop whatever natural aptitudes their birth charts show they possess, and use them to the advantage not only of themselves, but also to the advantage of society as a whole.

Such conditions already exist on the inner plane. People do not work for money in the next life; therefore, there is no compulsion for them to follow a trade for which ill fitted and which to them is distasteful. On the contrary, the economic system there encourages them to find and take up the work for which they have been fitted by education and inclination.

I do not wish to convey the idea that so soon as you get on the other side that you will never be required to do anything that seems disagreeable. If you have not found your cosmic work while still on the physical plane—which you can do if you make proper effort—there may be considerable education and adjustment required before you finally get into it. Furthermore, aside from this work, there may be certain obligations to be met, incurred through error and wrongdoing in earth life, that for the time will not be pleasant. The record of your earth doings must be faced, and you, yourself, will pass judgment and pronounce sentence. And aside from this, the unlearning of preconceived ideas, and getting yourself properly adjusted to the new life, may not be unaccompanied by some disagreeable circumstances; or, according to your own life, they may be free from them. But when you get into your own work on the inner plane you will experience nothing but joy in doing it. Blessed is he, on either plane, who has found his real work.

You can, if you make proper effort, find this cosmic work while still in the flesh. But while still in the flesh, because there is no financial demand for it, you may be able to follow it only as an avocation, and may be compelled to make your living doing something else. But you may be assured that the economic system of the inner planes is not so inefficient and wasteful as to demand of you that you do something else. Every encouragement and assistance will be rendered you, by those more advanced there, to enable you to find and follow your own work. And in it you will experience a great joy.

And now let us consider some of the inner-plane jobs, bearing in mind that in this incomplete description no attempt is made to show how these employments are there influenced by the different time order, or other freedoms from restrictions commonly encountered on the outer plane.

Doctors and Nurses

If you have read the literature of spiritualism, and the reports of others who have traveled on short trips into the astral region and returned to their physical bodies, the impression may have been received that in the next life everyone worthwhile is engaged in one of two occupations; they are either missionaries lending assistance to those who are making an effort to rise to higher planes, or they are members of the medical profession, doctors and nurses, spending their time assisting at the birth and adjustment of those from the earth plane who enter this new life.

That by far the majority of recitals of the next life have to do with accounts of these two professional activities is to be expected. People when they first pass over need doctors and nurses, even as they need them when first born into physical life. Hence, about the first impression of the new arrival is that of these activities. And so soon as the nurses feel that the late arrival is sufficiently adjusted to the new world that they can relinquish their care of him, he usually is turned over to a guide, or missionary, who instructs him, in so far as he is willing to receive it, on the conditions of the new life, and how he should live to make upward progress.

Nor are the activities of doctors and nurses confined to these regions immediately surrounding the earth. So high, at least, as any I have information about, they still perform a useful function. Man still possesses a form, not only on the astral levels, but on those spiritual. And this form, for the individual to perform at highest efficiency, must be kept in proper condition. I do not mean that it is subject to such illnesses as we have on earth; but that the coordination of its vibratory organization to give the highest results requires that care be given it.

Astrological discords, excessive endeavors in some single direction, and other conditions may upset the harmonious relation between the functions of this higher form, depleting the vital reservoir, or disturbing the inner coordination. The doctors and nurses specialize in helping those who need such help on every plane. They make a study of the thought requirements of individuals following various occupations, and how to restore through thought treatments, any who have exhausted themselves in their endeavors. And on the higher astral levels they specialize not so much in correcting discords, as in how those who there work can acquire and use the vital forces necessary to carry out their self-imposed tasks.

On the spiritual plane, too, they perform a useful function. After passing from the astral, although this passing is usually not so abrupt as the passing from the physical to the astral, people are born into the spiritual world. To be finally and completely born into the spiritual world requires the construction, through such processes as are considered in detail in Course III, Spiritual Alchemy, and Course XVII, Cosmic Alchemy, of a spiritual form in which there to function. Every person who lives in the physical world possesses an astral body, and when he passes from physical life he spontaneously functions in this astral body. But not everyone who has a physical body, or who functions on the astral plane in an astral body, has a spiritual body. The spiritual body must be built.

But before there is complete birth into the spiritual world, every shred of the astral body must be discarded. This sloughing off of the astral body is a rather gradual process of refinement. But in the final change from the velocities of the astral world to permanent residence in a world of still higher velocities, the last vestiges of the astral must be left behind. And the doctors and nurses of the spiritual world are fitted to advise and help in this. They also, in that higher velocity region, perform a further useful function, which because it pertains to high velocity properties, it is useless to try to explain in any detail.

Those who have special ability to lead people into a higher life perform the duties of missionaries, or guides. These guides do a great variety of work. They take the newly arrived person about, explaining to him as much about the new conditions in which he finds himself as he is able to receive. They endeavor to inspire him with the desire to live a more spiritual life, quickly to atone for the mistakes made on earth, and to rise to a position of constructive usefulness.

Devotional Exercises

Not only are some missionaries, but some also who have special powers of oratory, through thought broadcasting, talk regularly to large congregations. Devotional exercises are not confined to earth, but are a part of the life also of higher levels. People who follow various other occupations gather together at given times to listen to those of special spiritual understanding expound their knowledge of the higher truths.

Sometimes these devotional exercises are held in immense cathedrals of wondrous architecture; and sometimes they are held in the open, the chief speaker delivering his thought message from some grassy eminence. At such gatherings there is music of a rapturous nature far surpassing anything known to earth. On earth we are moved by music; but in these interior regions the finer body is far more responsive, and the exquisite harmonies pervade it in a most ecstatic manner. Tones are heard that physical sound can scarcely suggest, and the finer senses of this inner world give a keener thrill of responsive pleasure.

At these meetings, especially at some of the open-air meetings, where there are trees and flowers and soft murmuring brooks; those gathered rather commonly expect, in addition to the music and the discourse, to witness some manifestation from regions above. These more spiritual manifestations are made possible by the soul upliftment of the gathered congregation. Their vibrations are raised and intensified, temporarily, through the music and the devotional exercises; and thus can be used to enable great beings from still higher spheres to descend amid spiritual splendors into their midst.

A group from some higher hierarchy may thus descend upon the hill around which the congregation is assembled; and the main speaker, or preacher, may step to one side to permit one of these exalted guests to address them. Or the descending great ones may bring with them some tremendous musical composition which is rendered before the awe-inspired audience. Or they may bring with them a miniature lifelike and moving representation of the conditions that obtain in the higher sphere from whence they come; something like a moving picture, except that it appears to have all the dimensions of actual life. Or the manifestation may be that of building and dissolving scenery of most magnificent contour and gorgeous colors.

Just what takes place at these devotional gatherings depends upon various conditions; but it is always uplifting and inspiring. And if visitors from higher realms have taken part, at the close of the meeting, these ascend, are lost to view, and return to their own higher estate.

Guides and Missionaries

But the more familiar form of ministry is that of the missionaries. Not that all of them consider themselves by this term, but it seems to express the nearest approach to their kind of work that we have on earth. Welfare work might be nearly as good a term for their endeavors. But it is a kind of work that not only applies to the slums of the lower astral, but is carried out, with such variations as is required by planal level, on every level, as high as I have any knowledge.

It cannot be considered mere teaching, because the instructions given are mostly confined to soul advancement, and not the imparting of technical information about any single occupation. And, more often than not, the missionary descends from a plane higher than the one occupied by the person to whom he ministers. He has studied the process of moving across the planes, and has developed at least some slight ability to enter a lower plane than he normally occupies and reside there temporarily, while he encourages those who need such encouragement, and imparts to them counsel as to what they should do as the next step in their progress.

Because in the region close to the earth there is so great a need of such missionaries to put those who have passed from the earth with minds full of misconceptions on the right path, and because such missionaries are rather prominently in evidence in the regions where those who visit the astral realms temporarily travel, the impression might get abroad that the next life is a place where no one does much of anything but explain to someone else how to live a better life. But this would be erroneous; because life’s activities are quite as varied over there as on the earth.

Yet this work of spiritual instruction is well organized in the astral slums. Yes, there are brave souls who, after special training and preparation, descend into the very lowest regions, that wherever a single spark of light can be seen, manifesting even the faintest desire toward betterment, specific instructions may be given that will enable the proper step to be taken by the aspiring one.

To do such missionary work requires a knowledge of the broad principles of spiritual progress, and a sympathetic understanding of the disposition, nature, and needs of those approached.

Even on the highest levels of astral life, the knowledge of the spiritual existence, and how the individual best can reach it, is brought by missionaries from that realm, who have been able to communicate with those needing such encouragement or information. For while it is a law of spiritual progress that everyone should give all the aid he can to his fellows, some can be of much greater aid in other ways. Thus only those who are especially adapted to this kind of work are missionaries. Yet in the sense that it is their business to give direct aid to those seeking spiritual advancement, showing them how to direct their energies for that purpose, these missionaries, or ministers, have a valuable function on all planes.

Astrologers

But I can assure you from my own personal experience that astrologers also have a very important work to perform in the next life. As they ascend higher the work they perform becomes more difficult, in conformity with their expanding powers.

Those not too far from earth continue their researches into the astrological conditions that affect the lives of people still on earth. Whatever of astrological knowledge I may possess has first been shown me in the astral realms. Not that because I saw it in the astral realms I accepted it. But because I saw it in the astral realms I started out in my search for it on earth, and after finding it on earth more or less complete in theory then devised means to check its accuracy. Such was the process with the Hermetic System of Astrology.

I have waded through immense books, books probably with leaves larger than any astrological book on earth, where huge page after huge page was devoted to charts, with explanations of them. I have watched the astrologers of the inner plane make calculations, and followed their processes. Then I also have tried to make such calculations, and whenever I made an error was corrected.

Nor have I found all the astrologers over there infallible, either in method or in prediction. Some of them still hold to notions that I think are fantastic. Some of them delight in intricate mathematical processes which seem to me too much involved for practical use. But, also, I have observed the computations of certain others, of those who gave me information and methods that I have amply proved. And these I have followed in their work, finding it accurate and provable as far as I could go; but quickly reaching a point beyond which my puny mind could not grasp what to them seemed so plain and simple.

I refer here merely to the calculation of astrological problems affecting the physical earth and its inhabitants. To calculations that gave them information about what was going to happen, and when it was going to happen, which was verified subsequently; but which, because of insufficient brain power I was unable fully to follow.

Nor is this all; for I have witnessed them working with the problems, and charting the forces operating in higher velocity realms, such as exert their influence on the lives and destinies of those in the next life. Their charts were not plain surfaces; nor was their zodiac round, but more like a transparent sphere, with the lines inside as well as outside of it. And it seemed to me that the astrological forces were calculated as coming from the inside, from the center, as well as the outside. I did not understand how this could be; nor did I understand anything about the process they were following, but I enjoyed it immensely.

People come to our astrological classes in Los Angeles for the first time, and sit through the meeting without knowing even the meaning of the simplest astrological term we use. They say that they are not bored because at least we seem to get fun out of it. And thus I have attended astrological meetings on the astral plane, where they talked about things quite incomprehensible to me, and had a lively time of it discussing how certain astrological influences would operate upon certain people or groups in the astral world; also about which I knew nothing. But in spite of my ignorance, I felt they knew what they were talking about, and it certainly was astrological, and the atmosphere of the place and those in it made me feel that it was important. So, in spite of my lack of comprehension, the mere feeling that something astrologically important was being discussed gave me pleasure and interest.

Halls of Learning

And I might take up, at some length, a description of the halls of learning, in which discourses are held on other occult subjects. But it is enough to say that many still on earth who are deeply interested in occult studies rather regularly visit these astral schools during sleep. The person conversant with the occult forces of nature, as well as the person conversant with astrology, has an important function to play in the life after physical death.

Farmers and Miners

But do not think that the occupations so far mentioned are the only useful ones. Even the person who has cultivated the ability to be a successful farmer, or a successful miner, has a vital part to play in the afterlife economy.

Basic materials and energies are equally necessary for construction and for activity on the inner planes as they are here. In the regions not remote from earth there are forests, and gardens of flowers. Even these do not assume their pleasing distribution and forms without intelligent supervision. And while thought intensely held brings things into form, thought consumes energy, and the astral substance used may be of grades and qualities.

From the universal substance of the level occupied, those with aptitude for it furnish the proper quality of energy and substance to be used in thought construction, even as our miners and farmers here furnish the basic commodities of life. I shall not attempt to explain this process. Farming and mining as we know it here do not exist after leaving the region close to the earth. But the abilities of those who specialize in such work here are not lost. They perform a useful function, and an interesting one, changing the materials used as higher levels are reached, yet continuing active all the way up the ascending scale of existence.

Teachers and Writers

I suppose I hardly need to mention the function of teachers, writers, publishers, and accountants in the realms above, because these are people frequently contacted by those yet of earth. They install the various systems of communication with the earth plane that are in vogue; including the supervision of séances where messages and information are given as well as those higher class systems of communication between the planes by means of voluntary thought transference. But séances devoted to materialization are commonly presided over by chemists, and those where physical force is the chief manifestation usually require the presence of a physicist.

But either teaching those on the earth plane, or establishing communications between loved ones on different planes, is the work of but certain groups. Teaching, and the dissemination of information, is quite as important a function in the inner realms as on the outer plane. Children who pass through the portal of physical death, of course, must take up their schooling on the inner plane. And adults require technical training to become more proficient with the particular line they have chosen to follow. I have already mentioned astrological and occult schools; but there are also schools devoted to every variety of technical education, and other places where lectures are delivered on subjects of more general interest.

I have already made mention of books in connection with astrology. These books give way, as the earth recedes, to records of a more direct character kept in the archives of astral substance. But to be available with facility to a wide public these records need to be clear cut thought impressions. And it is the function of publishers to see to it that such are made, and that the vibratory avenues are kept open, so that anyone desiring any particular information can tune in on it instantly.

Mechanics and Engineers

This universe is not such a self-starting, unalterable, predestined concern as materialists conceive it to be. A few years ago five great scientists met to discuss their divergent views. Jeans maintained that the universe is running down. Millikan believed that the cosmic rays indicate that it is being wound up as fast as it runs down. Eddington thought in time it is bound to explode. The papers did not say what Milne and Lodge thought; but the latter, no doubt, took a more spiritual view.

As seen from the inner levels the physical orbs are machines just as the materialists conceive them, except that back of them is an intelligent driving power. That is, they are machines built and operated by vast intelligences occupying the inner realms of being. And even as a machine once built and started by a human on earth must operate according to its plan, so the physical orbs and manifestations run according to the laws imparted to them by their designers.

This is not an attempt to explain how the material universe came into existence. It is merely a hint that inventors and machinists and engineers need not despair of finding something upon which to use their skill and utmost ingenuity, not only in the astral but also in the highest spheres of spiritual being.

Artists

Entertainment, through the drama, through fiction, and by means of music and dancing, finds a place in the after life. It is not a region of all work, or of all play. It has its variety of interests. And the beautiful, approached through every avenue, plays a most important part.

If I had the gift of transcendent description I should try to give a pen-picture of the beautiful creations you will see in that future realm. But such is entirely beyond my power. Yet the work of the artist in that realm, whatever the medium of his expression, is only partly expressed in the external creations of his music, his painting, his sculpture, his dancing, his fiction, or whatever he uses to give form to his work. The important thing to him, and to others, is the direct way in which he conveys the sense of beauty to the very interior nature of others. Operating with high velocities, through the avenue of thought forms he imparts to others and cultivates in them his own joyous appreciation of the symmetrical, the harmonious, the beautiful, and all that seems most elevating in life.

Leaders

In higher realms there is quite as much need of competent organization and a capable centralized authority as there is here. People strive in the after life to be leaders, that is, those whose abilities fit them for such service. But they do not, in higher realms, strive to be leaders while incapable of efficient work. Instead, because the ability of people, as well as their motives, stand out clearly for all to see, they strive for ability, well knowing that when they are sufficiently fitted they will be called upon to act in executive capacity.

In this we have something that is truly democratic and yet has the seeming of autocratic government. Leaders are given autocratic authority and full responsibility. They gain their leadership, not through popular vote in which appearances often count more than real ability, but because those working under them, as well as those working over them, perceive their special fitness for the post they occupy. Their authority is exercised, not through compulsion against rebellious subjects, but through a common recognition of their ability thus to serve in maximum degree.

Birth Charts

Mahatma Gandhi Chart

October 2, 1869, 7:09 a.m.; 69:45E. 22N.Data given in Book of Notable Nativities.